Pieter Claeissens, Virgin and Child, 1560
i.
The Virgin holds her own
draped in white.
He is almost an angel and
I think his name is Jesus.
Behind the Virgin are three
vials of oil so high that not
even an almost-angel could
reach them. A man in the corner
is hard at work giving the virgin
his own personal vow of silence,
the kind that only liars would get.
There is solace in her face
that only a woman living in the year
of the Man could ever feel.
ii.
I wonder why my hair is too short
or why my knees are bent sideways. You can say the
Rosary ten times over and you’ll still
feel ugly on the inside. Why do I wear my dad’s
face instead of my mother’s?
Maybe I should call her.
I’ve only learned that there is no
encyclopedia for women and no God
that can help you pick the shade of lipstick that
suits you the best. Maybe he just doesn’t
whisper those things to me?
Sofía Cortés is a current undergraduate student majoring in Journalism.
“Violette Heymann”, Odilon Redon (1926).